For many years, economic growth in emerging markets has outpaced the development of state and civil society institutions, giving rise to political, social and environmental challenges. But where companies once viewed these challenges as issues to ameliorate through corporate philanthropy, today many of these challenges pose immediate threats to companies’ expansion and long-term success. This is now the case in both the emerging and mature markets that offer the most promising growth opportunities.

We’ve been heartened by the warm response to our piece about the importance of supporting innovation, which SSIR ran as its cover story in February. To continue the conversation, we wrote up additional thoughts in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which ran in early August and was the newspaper’s most-read article on the day it came out. Just in case you missed it–easy to do in today’s blizzard of social media–here it is again. Stay tuned for further thoughts from us later in the year, as we continue digging in to the importance of taking risks in philanthropy and what it means to be effective as an innovation funder.

Prize competitions increasingly serve as a creative mechanism for foundation and government leaders to engage the public, drive innovation and pay for results. In a new report, my co-authors and I at Doblin (the innovation practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP) explore how governments and philanthropies can solve public sector problems through the use of incentive prizes. The report, The Craft of Prize Design: Lessons from the Public Sector offers the most exhaustive exploration yet completed of incentive prizes within and around the public sector and provides new trend data, practical design guidance, and case studies that can be applied to the public, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.